When Ayo Vaughn chose to live in Apapa in preference to Ikoyi, that choice did not mean that the General (retired) in the Nigerian Army was settling for less, because at the time he made that choice, Apapa, Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA were at par as foremost Government Reserved Areas (GRAs).
Vaughn did not regret his choice because, like Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA, Apapa was a sought-after address, a residential and commercial destination described as a city of aquatic splendour with its Roads and Avenues well paved and lined with rich ornamentals and beautiful flowers.
But today, unlike Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA which have soared in value, Apapa has become a wasteland—a paradise lost. Maritime activities, indiscriminate setting up of tank farms, the failure of rail transport system, the arrogance of the shipping companies and the ineptitude of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have combined and conspired to rape the country’s premier port city and left it bare.
Apapa has become a metaphor for stress and suffering where the residents have been dehumanized, the environment degraded and investments devalued by rampaging trailers and tankers whose uncontrolled influx have over-run the port city with devastating impact on homes and businesses.
Against warnings from structural engineers and contrary to acceptable practice in sane societies, trucks are parked mindlessly on bridges and any other available space, causing unprecedented congestion and traffic gridlock that have become a permanent feature of the port city.
This is the scenario that compelled Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to come to Apapa twice in one week in July last year. Apapa was completely locked down with spiraling effect on the whole of Lagos, grounding economic and social activities in the sprawling city whose economy is representative of the entire Nigerian economy.
Osinbajo, ordered a 72-hour joint operation to clear the gridlock in Apapa. He directed that the operation should be carried out by collaborative efforts of the Police, Nigeria Navy, Nigeria Army, the Nigeria Air Force, FRSC and the NSCDC, LASTMA, LASEMA, Container truck drivers, National Association of Road Transport Owners, NUPENG, Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria.
But nothing happened as a result of the presidential order and directive. The situation became even worse and has remained so ever since, leading to pertinent questions on the integrity, potency and efficacy of presidential orders and directives.
A cerebral professor of Law, Osinbajo comes off easily as a pastor-gentleman who should have the integrity enough to mean what he says. But, he has become a politician, and in Nigeria, politicians are not known to mean what they say or say what they mean. Every statement suits situational expediency.
But for truck drivers and/or their principals to disrespect and disobey a presidential order goes beyond integrity and political gimmickry. To make matters worse, Osinbajo gave the order as Acting President, meaning that he had the full powers of the president and commander-in-chief, yet, nothing happened.
This is the second of such orders that Osinbajo gave as Acting President. In March last year, he ordered international oil companies (IOCs) to immediately relocate their headquarters to the Niger Delta, urging the Minister of State, Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, to begin the process of engaging the IOCs on the way forward to actualise the directive. This order was promptly ignored.
“If Osinbajo as acting president gave orders and nobody obeyed him, it means that he is a toothless bull-dog. If nobody listens to the president, who then will they listen to, meaning that the government is inefficient or, by omission or commission, not ready to address Apapa problems”, Vaughn who is the chairman of Apapa GRA Residents Association, lamented in an interview with BusinessDay.
Vaughn is of the view that the major causes of the Apapa problem are the NPA which is government’s regulatory agency and the shipping companies. The failure of NPA to do what it is supposed to do is reason for what Apapa has become today. “Apapa has degenerated below what could be called a GRA. As far as this area is concerned, it is no more a GRA”, he noted.
How all these are impacting on the residents, their environment and investment, and the wider Nigerian economy is better imagined than expressed. The situation impacts directly on the residents and businesses within the port city, because, according to Vaughn, “the problem of Apapa goes beyond the gridlock which everybody sees; a lot of us, especially the retirees, depend on income from our houses; many of these houses have been empty in the last five years”.
It is estimated that 40 percent of the entire buildings in the Apapa GRA are empty. On the average, 10 houses are empty on any given street. Average house rent in this area is N5 million per annum, meaning that in one street alone, income loss for the five-year period is about N250 million.
Many property owners are selling at ridiculously low prices. A property vendor who did not want to be named, told BusinessDay that a woman in one of the streets put up her house for sale at N65 million last year, but nobody wanted to buy. Just a few days ago, the woman in anger sold the house for N40 million and left the area for good.
Vaughn lamented that, in spite of this ugly situation, Lagos state government still collects tenement rates from Apapa residents and expects them to pay same as payable in Ikoyi and Ikeja GRA whereas some houses here have been empty for three to five years. “And don’t forget, it is the same government’s policy that is preventing the owners from renting out those houses”, he stressed.
Wharf Road and Commercial Road used to be the ‘Central Business Districts’ of this port city where high net worth firms and banks had their offices and branches respectively. A walk through these ‘districts’ shows that most of the banks have either relocated or have the number of their branches reduced.
On Wharf Road alone, more than 10 banks and two eateries have shut down their branches due to the pain and difficulty in accessing these branches, leading to loss of substantial customers in the area.
Unity Bank, for instance, which used to have four branches, now has two, Ecobank with eight branches has reduced to four and Access Bank with seven branches also cut down to four.
Eateries like Tetrazini has shut down, Tantalizer with three outlets has reduced to one and the only Mr Biggs eatery in Apapa on Creek Road is now out of the market. Film House Cinema inside Apapa Mall has also shut down.
Even the famous Apapa Amusement Park which used to be a source of joy for kids has been shut down due to low patronage. Major hotels like Rockview and many others are struggling for lack of patronage as most of their rooms are empty. Events that require renting their halls are no longer frequent.
“You can’t compare the situation now and how it was before. No one has been to hell and heaven but from experience, we can liken the situation in Apapa to hell. Apapa used to be a place for good businesses, but not any more, said Ruwase Babatunde, President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
Babatunde was reacting to ugly experiences of companies and industries which have to pay heavily in order to get their goods out of the ports. An importer who has his business within Apapa told BusinessDay, pleading anonymity, that before now, he spent between N180,000 and N190,000 on transportation of his consignment from Sifax Group depot in Apapa to another location within Apapa. Today, it costs him between N295,000 and N300,000 to move the same one 20-footer container to the same location, representing almost 150 percent increase in his freight cost.
“It has been a big problem these days and the experience in getting to Apapa has become a nightmare”, said Tony Anakebe, a port operator and member of freight forwarders association of Nigeria, adding, “businesses continue to slide to their lowest level; it takes us almost two weeks to get our containers loaded after finishing with the customs”.
A clearing agent, who pleaded anonymity, affirmed in a telephone interview, explaining that freight costs have gone so high because their turnaround has dropped significantly as a result of the congestion and gridlock which have made movement in and out of the ports extremely difficult.
“Before now, a truck driver could go on two to three trips a day within Lagos; now he can only do one trip. Outside Lagos, he could do two times in a week, today he can only do once in a month”, the clearing agent stated.
For that reason, the agent continued, transporting a 40-footer container from Lagos to Onitsha now costs an importer N1.3 million, up from between N320,000 and N340,000 before the congestion in Apapa. Moving the same container from Lagos to Shagamu which before cost N120,000 to N150,000, is now N750,000 to N800,000.
For an importer to move his goods from Lagos to Ilorin now costs him between N860,000 and N900,000, up from N220,000 to N260,000 he used to pay, just as transportation of same size container to Abuja now costs N1.3 million to N1.4 million, up from N420,000.
All these increases are putting pressure on businesses but, according to clearing agent, the person at the receiving end is the consumer to whom the importer transfers the additional costs. Again, the implication of all these is that imported items will continue to be very expensive and unaffordable to many consumers.
“Until all these anomalies are addressed, Nigeria will continue to be too expensive a market for foreign direct investment which the country needs badly at the moment”, noted Emmanuel Ameke, a port operator. “Ease of doing business which has remained a hoax, especially at the ports, must be seen as an economic necessity and not political tool for winning elections”, he added.
In what seems like dancing on the graves of residents and businesses, both the Federal and Lagos State governments collect huge revenues from the two ports in Apapa which are considered the busiest in Nigeria, accounting for over 70 percent of all the import and export activities in the country.
The Federal Government has very strong presence at the two ports with its revenue collecting agencies which collect money for it in form of import duties and levies by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS); royalties, rents and dues collected by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); dues and levies collected by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); certification levies collected by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), among others.
Report has it that, in 2016, NCS alone generated N898 billion as revenue for the federal government and this was even less than the N904 billion collected in 2015. The reduction, according to a close source at the NCS, was because of the difficulty in accessing foreign exchange and removal of the 41 items which forced down the level of activities within the ports. In spite of the recession that ravaged the economy for 15 months, unconfirmed report has it that NCS revenue for 2017 was over N1trillion.
The Lagos State government, on its part, collects landing fees from the ports. This revenue, according to officials of the state government, is to enable it maintain access roads to the port. It remains to be seen what the state is doing with the money it collects from the ports.
The federal government, in spite of the huge revenue it takes from the ports, has abandoned port access roads. Apapa has a master plan which, if implemented, should make the port city a beauty to behold, but, according to Vaughn, this master plan has been distorted and destroyed.
“I am aware that Apapa has a master plan. Indeed, the whole Lagos has a master plan but nothing has happened or is happening. All the master-plan has been distorted. In Apapa, for instance, over the years, Flour Mills and Honeywell were just very small companies. Dangote was not even there at all.
“Today, these companies have grown by over 200 percent and no additional land has been created. This means that these companies are choking the environment. Today, Dangote alone occupies almost 50 percent of the ports, constricting the areas where containers could be parked. So, the Apapa master plan is as good as dead”, he stated.
It beats the imagination that a country could be so care-free with its premier port city which is a N20 billion a day economy. Every attention is on oil which, from happenings in the international oil market, may not be sustainable in the long run. Apapa is not the only port in the country. All the eastern ports have been deliberately allowed to rot and die. This shouldn’t be, and time is now to look in that direction. Apapa as a destination and as a port city should be decongested for the good of humanity and the growth of the country’s economy. Today is the time to start.
CHUKA UROKO
